German hairdresser uses Hitler posters to fight far right

A German hairdresser who used an image of Hitler to advertise her salon and raise money for a charity that rehabilitates right-wing extremists is in hot water with local prosecutors, according to local media.

The campaign featured posters and flyers with an image of Hitler with a removable moustache and the phrase: “Wax to fight the right.” The salon in the Bavarian city of Cham donated €1 per customer to Exit-Deutschland, an organization that helps ex-Neo Nazis and far-right extremists.

But local prosecutors said the ads contravened a German law that bans the use of illegal organizations’ symbols.

“The reason [for the use of the image] doesn’t matter,” chief prosecutor Theo Ziegler told Süddeutsche Zeitung. The point of the law is to keep symbols of the Nazi era banned to ensure they remain taboo, he said. He added that it was easy to misunderstand the point of the poster, particularly for visitors to the city who do not speak German.

After the salon removed all the advertisements, prosecutors decided not to take further action.